Apple iPhone 4 (CDMA)

at&t vs. VZW

The only difference between the service offered by these two carries is the FACT that on VZW, you cannot talk & surf.

I have had service with at&t, VZW, T-Mobile and Sprint. Guess what? They all have issues in one form or another.

I am not an Apple fanboy however I am currently using the iPhone 4 and am pleased with it's performance. Is it perfect? No. Is any cell phone perfect? No.

As always, I am suspect of some of the postings on this forum (and the intent of the posters) i.e. fanboys, competitors and such, posting biased opines to try and sway potential customers. Well it is a free speech country so the readers are going to have to sift through all the BS to find the real information to assist them in their decision making proc...(continues)

Ok. before I begin, let me state that I am not an iPhone owner, an AT&T or Verizon customer, or an Apple fanboy. I do not own any Apple products.

That said, why does everyone seem to make a big deal out of this talk & surf at the same time deal? For years, a lot of iPhone customers on AT&T have been on a angerfest about how their calls get dropped a lot and 'this phone is not a phone', bad experience with AT&T, not to mention that video I saw titled 'F___ you AT&T'. Now that this phone has come to Verizon, again talks about how this cannot surf and talk simultaneously, or how it doesn't have 4G, or no SIM card.

Look, I'm not calling out those folks. Since I am not an iphone owner, I cannot speak for your experiences. But now that the...(continues)

My personal opinion on the whole talk and surf thing is this....its one of those things that, once you get used to it...you miss it when its gone. Kinda like Crackberry Addicts.....you have to admit (I imagine) that there are MANY who fought the whole process of giving up their physical keyboard. Sure, life goes on with or without it....but for some that is a HUGE change.

Me...I love being on the phone with someone, talking about our plans....and I can use the YellowPages App to find a place to eat, or...I can be on the phone and sending a bunch of emails while I talk...maybe sitting in the airport.

You're right, Verizon doesn't allow talking and surfing at the same time, but neither does ATT in EDGE areas (where a lot of iphone users work and live).

Because Verizon doesn't allow this (they use two different bands for talking and surfing) it means that even IF verizon's network crashes because of high iphone data usage (unlikely, but possible) it won't inhibit phonecalls. So you won't have the Dropped calls in overloaded data networks issue like the iphone is known for.

Very well written, I tip my hat to you, as I work at Verizon and have so for many years and that has always been our philosphy and always will be, never sacrifice one thing for another, as it completely defeats the purpose of making progress.

Sorry, but I can't resist. If Verizon doesn't sacrifice one thing for another, how do you explain the reasoning behind dumping new every two credit and annual upgrade? Are we just getting rid of something good without replacing it with something as good or better? Yeah. That's progress alright. I had to go there.

Take a look at the retail tags on devices. They're expensive. The average cost of a high end smartphone is between 550-600.

Before you say it, I know there's markup, but it's nowhere near what most people think. Typically Verizon marks up the devices only 20-30 dollars, with most retailers doing around 50-60. This might sound like a alot, but let's look at the Galaxy S, which sells for around 600 retail. even if they do the maximum markup, that's JUST over 10%, where most things in retail are marked up 50% or more.

The reason I bring this up is to show that phones are expensive. Verizon's not buying them for $50 and then selling them on a contract for $199. They're actually taking a loss when they sell them to you on contract, w...(continues)

You forgot to mention the face that when he said trade off, he is saying they got rid of New Every Two and annual upgrades in order to carry the iPhone 4. As an indirect agent as you say you are, you should know that iPhone inventory is different story that Motorola inventory. When you buy iPhone's as a company you own that product fully. That is why Verizon will lose 5 Billion the first year of carrying the device. Now think about how much more they will loose if they had new every 2 an annual upgrades into play. They took those two away to help with the lose they will acquire. You mentioned all of these 600 dollar phones and Verizon never had a reason discounting all of those phones until the iPhone came into place.

badsky2k said:there is no perfect carrier and no perfect equipment out there.

I disagree. The perfect device/carrier is whatever works best for YOU. People make things harder than they need be. The quest for the Holy Grail of cell phones started when the first one was produced (along with the spearate battery you had to carry along with it)...and it continues to this day (and beyond). One can either join the quest and get all caught up in the minutia as life passes them by....or they can accept what is right in front of their face.